Audi investing $34b to 2018; boosting range to 60 models by 2020

Audi has announced the details of its five-year investment plan, which will see the Ingolstadt car maker spend 22 billion euros ($33.6 billion) on new models, vehicle innovations, and a growing global production network.

Audi also revealed plans to expand its current range from 49 model lines to 60 by 2020.

The investment plan, to be rolled out between this year and 2018, will see approximately 70 per cent of total investment costs spent on the development of new models and technologies. Of this amount, more than half will be spent on Audi’s Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm sites in Germany, where 700 new jobs will be created in the coming twelve months.

“With this investment, we are launching our next stage of growth,” Audi board member for finance and organisation Axel Strotbek said.

“In the future, we will be investing increasingly in new products. Seventy per cent is intended for the modernisation and expansion of the model range and for our portfolio of technologies.”

Audi chairman of the board of management Rupert Stadler says the five-year investment program is a core component of Audi’s wider growth strategy.

“We had set the goal of 1.5 million deliveries by 2015, but was have already achieved that quite comfortably in 2013. We are now decisively heading towards our next milestone of two million deliveries. This is why we are keeping our foot on the gas regarding investments,” Stadler said.

Part of Audi’s growth will involve a rapid expansion of its model line-up. A new, third-generation Audi TT – whose interior was revealed earlier today – is due to be launched later this year. Audi will also expand its Q-range of SUVs, with an entry-level ‘Q1’ due to arrive in 2016.

Several new production sites around the world will receive a large portion of the 22 billion euro investment. Firstly, the marque will build its first factory in North America, in the Mexican city of San Jose Chiapa, where 26,000 people have already applied for jobs related to the eventual production of the Audi Q5 from 2016.

Audi will also resume production in Brazil, with the A3 sedan and Q3 set to be built in the country from next year. The German car maker’s plant in Gyor, Austria, will be also expanded; the site is currently the largest engine manufacturing facility in the world, and full production capabilities will be added. Finally, Audi will open a site in Foshan, China, in the coming months.